Palm rises on analyst upgrade
Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) shares are rising in early trading after investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) upgraded the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based smartphone maker to “overweight” from “underweight.” In a note to investors, JPMorgan said it expects Palm to introduce several new phone models during 2008 and stronger-than-projected sales of its Centro smartphone.
Sprint Nextel Corporation’s (NYSE: S) exclusive Centro deal is ending and JPMorgan projects that Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) will introduce their own version of the Windows-based mobile phone. The investment bank also said that a new operating system will be released in late 2008, which will prompt increased product activity in early 2009.
JPMorgan projects a fiscal 2008 loss of $0.38 a share, and a loss of $0.09 per share during fiscal 2009. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect a 2008 loss of $0.17 per share and a 2009 loss of $0.05 per share.
In other news, Palm’s CFO Andrew Brown is scheduled to make a presentation at Thomas Weisel Partners Technology, Telecom & Internet Conference 2008 at 7:25 p.m. ET.
Cell phone-maker stocks rose during Friday’s trading after Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) said it is contemplating selling or spinning off its struggling handset business.
In morning trading, PALM shares are up 5.48%, or $0.33, at $6.35. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $4.25 to $9.93.
